Battleship - A senior design preparatory experience

The senior design capstone project can be overwhelming for some electrical and computer engineering technology students. In addition to selecting a topic and then actually designing something, it may be the first time that a student has had to execute all aspects of a project from conception to completion. In preparation for this challenge, students could benefit from practice on a somewhat predefined project. This paper presents a series of homework and laboratory assignments that guide the student through the development of a large object-oriented programming project: an Internet enabled version of the game battleship. Project elements include rules of play, a graphical user interface for ship placement, another for battle, and a communications protocol for play over the Internet. While the overall scope of project is fixed, there are many opportunities for the students, as a team, to impose variations on the theme during the specification process. This customization activity promotes a sense of ownership and commitment. Student feedback has been positive and the paper includes a summary of their comments.